Sheriff’s office gives registrants tips on how to not fall victim to phone scams that target them
FAC continues to hear from people who have been victims of scams simply because they are forced to have their personal information on a public registry. There is a sheriff’s office that wants registrants to know tips to protect themselves from scams
TIPS:
- Scammers pretend to be someone you trust. Don’t send money or give out personal information for unexpected requests.
- Google a phrase that describes your situation, e. g. your county name along with “scams for SOs”.
- It is easy for scammers to fake caller IDs.
- Don’t let the scammer rush you into a decision. Discuss it first with someone whose opinion you trust.
- Scammers have easy access to your personal information. Call back at a publicly listed number for the organization.
To avoid such phone scams, I would strongly recommend the following:
#1. Know something about your local registering agency (Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, etc) and question the caller about it. For example, “Is Sheriff Rogers still there or has he already retired?” Or “Is Mr Jameson still handling the annual registration process? Why isn’t he calling me about this issue?”.
(Meanwhile, You know for a fact that there has never been a Sheriff Rogers for a Mr. Jameson, so see if they fall for it. You KNOW the REAL Sheriff is Sheriff Smith and the REAL registering agent is Ms. Hollis.) 🤔
#2. Similarly, ask the caller, “I don’t understand. I was just there last week/last month/last Monday to register a new vehicle and completed all my paperwork. Why didn’t the officer say something then?” 🤨
#3. In other words, know something that they don’t, and ask them about it. Throw them off their game and see what stupid answer they come up with. (In my experience with these scammers, you will find it they quickly escalate their tones and threats – with the hope that you will cave in. And, if that does not work, they will becoming angry 😡 and will start becoming notably unprofessional by calling you “Stupid”, “an idiot”, etc.- a strong clue that they are not who they say they are.
David
AND, in 99% of the times law enforcement will not call to tell you, you have a warrant. They did for me because they couldn’t find me and knew I was former law enforcement and most likely was not hiding from them. It back fired for them because that gave me a chance to go pay the bail bondsmen and do a walk through without being re-arrested.
The fact the registry is being used to scam us IS a fact that the registry is punishment. You can access the registry anywhere in the World. Judges ruled this is public information, however, someone in India is not able to go to the court house and get your records like someone in town can.
This information online is basically setting us all up to be harassed, scammed, attacked and for some, even killed. And these attacker and almost never the victim or their families exacting revenge. It is someone who doesn’t know us and we do not know them. They are taking advantage of free for the picking vulnerable groups of society.
Some random thoughts that I probably know the answers for already. Interesting that the press release says nothing about what the sheriff’s office is doing about the scammers. This, in spite of the fact that these scammers are impersonating law enforcement, It seems little is done to go after scammers. I liked the paradox of going online to search for the scammers. I’m not at all familiar with California registration laws, but when I was on probation, I wasn’t allowed to access the internet. So forget that tip. If the state took the registry private, would that eliminate the less nefarious scammers?
BWJ
I was able to use the internet the day I was released onto probation. But of course none of my charges were internet related. In Fact, when I was arrested, I did not even own a computer as back then, only wealthy people had computers.
Heck, back then we all still had pagers and when you got a page, you went to a payphone (Remember those) and called the person back.
Cherokee
I do remember having a pager and having to locate a pay phone. Unfortunately I walked into an internet sting on Craigslist, so no computer was a condition of my probation. Again, I wonder what kind of data is out there that shows how frequently law enforcement goes after Scammers and what type of scammers.
How about, “Quit answering your phone if you don’t know who it is”. Law Enforcement knows where you live if they need to get in contact with you. Make everyone you don’t know leave a message.
Alan
I once got a scam call. It was not about the registry but about Tech support. I kept them on the line for at least 45 minutes. It kept someone else from being scammed by tying up their line. I do not suggest this unless you know what you are doing but it gave me great pleasure to pretend I was performing the tasks on the computer he wanted me to do.
He was in India I am sure and I was saying things to seem likable, like “So do you celebrate Christmas in your Country” and asking where he learned to be so smart to help dumb back woods folks like me get some learnin in computer’in. LOL
By time the call was over as I hung up he was cussing me out with language you only hear in a biker bar. The only backfire was, I ended up having to change my phone # due to him obviously putting me on some sort of autodialer that caused me to get so many calls that my phone became useless. The phone company changed my # for free but was a hassle to update and of course had to go in a re-register a new #.
What other group of people, ex cons or not, have that much info available at the touch of a keystroke to access? From the registry you can gain so much information about someone to exploit, harm or in some cases we have seen, kill the person.
The registry started off as information for law enforcement. It has evolved over the years to the point of where we are all targets of bad people who are rarely caught or charged for harassing us. It seems it takes them, killing us, for any charges to be brought.
I can offer a better tip. Do away with the registries and there won’t be any more scam attempts.
Disgusted
IF…………only it were that easy. Sigh
I feel like we are treated like when we were kids and said “Dad, why can’t I go outside and play like all the other kids?”. And Dad says “Because you were bad”. The difference is, when our punishment was over, Dad gave us a hug and said “Ok go play”. On the registry, Big Government does NOT forgive and forget, nor give us another chance. (Just being free does not mean we have freedom)
I use to work in law enforcement but I can tell you, as someone on the registry, any time a cop car pulls behind me, I cringe. More so if driving through a small city where the cops are bored. They do not really care you have a past, where it gets interesting is when they find out you are registered. That always seems to trigger a call to the Florida Department of Law enforcement and being detained (You are NOT free to go) until they get the all clear from FDLE. In one instance that was 2.5 hours of my life I will never get back. Another time from a super cool lieutenant, he got me cleared in just 12 minutes. I had stopped at a closed school entrance to take a call. (Not allowed to talk on phone while driving)
So doing the right thing got me pulled over. Although if you are already pulled over, are you really in a traffic stop?
i received the famous scam call today, they used the second dna ruse. they wanted me to come to a place, i said i was disabled could they pick me up. of course not, they said they would send the sheriff, i said ok. it was 2 people, spoof number. i knew right away, they also said, new, i could get off early? i cussed them out and hung up, no call back. they said i could get a pr bond, what idiots……..
Texas 30
Bless you my friend, glad you didn’t get taken by these low life creeps.
Texas Strong